Long Beach commissioners wonder how to honor city's rich surfing history
The city's Marine Advisory Commission is discussing how to memorialize the 1938 National Surfing and Paddleboard Championships held in the city that were recently recognized as a point of historical interest.
How do you memorialize a nearly 90-year-old surfing event when its Downtown Long Beach footprint has now become outlet shops and chain restaurants? That’s the question the city’s Marine Advisory Commission hopes to answer in the coming months.
Before the breakwater was completed in 1949, which ended most wave activity in Long Beach to calm the harbor for commerce at the port, the city was known as the "Waikiki of the West Coast" and regularly drew surfers and surf events to its shores.
